In the modern world of military, industrial, and commercial communications, many different systems may be required to interface with each other. Each system may have different communication requirements, security requirements, communication protocols, languages, and/or hardware requirements. To complicate matters further, systems belonging to one organization or subject to one set of security requirements may need to routinely communicate with systems belonging to another organization that is subject to its own security requirements. Therefore, each system may need to be designed to operate with numerous protocols and security requirements.
Problems arise when systems in a multi-system communication pathway undergo individual upgrades or requirement changes. As protocols and requirements change over time, existing systems need to be upgraded or retrofitted with supplemental modules in order to communicate with the new systems. This can lead to a patchwork array of fixes, security patches, and upgrades that can affect system stability over time.
In government systems, security requirements may be very difficult to change in response to hardware technology advances. Security requirements involving classification levels and encryption types may be subject to National Security Agency (NSA) approval and a rigorous review process. Hardware implementing these security requirements may then be expected to operate for decades without change. New systems then may have to communicate with legacy security hardware despite technology advances. Therefore, improvements in the art are needed.